From Omeleto.
A golfer prepares for a tournament.
BIRDIE CRICKET is used with permission from Neil Tuli. Learn more at https://instagram.com/neil2d.
Amit is a young high school golfer preparing for an upcoming tournament in his garage. But his practice isn’t going well, especially regarding his chip shots.
When his mother, Nandani, comes home, things go downhill even faster. They argue over everything from food to Amit’s swearing to getting Tiger Woods’s name wrong, but underlying their conversation is their sadness over the recent passing of Amit’s father. But when Nandani reveals herself as a quick study of the short game, Amit soon discovers that his mother knows more than he thinks.
Directed and written by Neil Tuli, this engaging family dramedy is an understatedly witty snapshot of the generation gap between an Indian mother and her Americanized son as she tries to impart some wisdom from her culture to him. Essentially a two-hander of an illuminating conversation between two characters, the format may be compressed in terms of narrative and production scope. But shot with a warm palette and sturdy camerawork, the film uses the intimacy of its format to explore the relationship between Amit and Nandani with surprising depth and insight.
Exceptionally well-written, the dialogue has a sharp, perceptive ear for the different characters of Amit and his mother, conjuring rich and full relationships and differing worldviews with well-honed turns of phrases and expressions. More importantly, the language understands how assumptions we carry about the people we’re talking to can color the dynamic of the conversations. Amit writes off his mother as a typically overbearing and smothering parent — you can practically hear the eye-roll through his voice alone — while Nandani gets frustrated that she can’t get through to her son and gets even more insistent the more Amit tries to ignore her.
At first, they can’t communicate without sparking off irritation and resentment. As actors, both Anish Chandak and Anita Chandwaney play this dynamic perfectly, displaying a deft way with the dialogue and epitomizing a classic parent-child conflict, made more complex with the misunderstandings between an immigrant and her second-generation offspring. But those gaps of misunderstanding allow for a surprise for Amit and the audience when Nandani — herself a college athlete in her past — offers some golfing tips cribbed from her culture’s love of cricket.
At first, Amit writes her suggestions off. But when Nandani reveals a surprising deftness with the club, he takes a second look and learns that maybe Mother does know best… sometimes. That realization ends BIRDIE CRICKET on a wry, funny note, played in a perfectly understated way. Many stories chronicle the complexities of immigrant parents and second-generation children, but the chasm is bridged here with a fresh athletic metaphor, finding common ground and keeping traditions and culture alive in unique ways.
